8.25.11

Psalms 40:8 I take joy in doing your will, my God for your instructions are written on my heart.

My Thoughts

The Amplified Bibles puts this verse in these words: I delight to do Your will, Oh my God; yes, Your law is within my heart.

When we take the time to know God, to read his word and learn what He says about life. When we take the time to put it in our remembrance we can make it a part of our heart. We can feel in our soul what the right choices are. We we choose to do good, to do what God would want us to do we can actually feel the joy, the delight deep within us. I love when I have that feeling!!  I remember picking my kid up at school when they were in kindergarten, the would almost run to the car with their work in their hands. They would have joy written all over them because the knew I would be proud of what they had done.  They worked hard to do a good job so that I would be proud of them. I was proud of them.  When we take time to know what God expects of us we can feel that same joy when we do the right thing. As God watches over us he sees when we have done good and he is proud of us for making the right choices. God loves it when we "get it."

As I read my Bible I often read verses that I have heard all my life. Verses that were in my memory but never quite in my heart somehow.  I love it when one of those verses become perfectly clear... when I can almost feel it slip from my head to your heart. When I know finally how to apply it to my life. I think God must feel like we felt when we were helping our children learn to read.  Each night they struggled and struggled as they tried reading aloud. Then one day, almost out of the blue they are reading, not stumbling along but actually reading. One day they are working so hard at it the next day reading is just a part of who they are.  That is how God wants his word to be. He wants us to read it and study it and read it and study it.  God expects us to try and fail and try and fail. God also knows that one day if we keep trying, if we keep reading, learning and praying, on day his word will slip into our heart in such a way that his word, his instruction, his love becomes a part of who we are. Just like children learning to read we have to do our part for it to become a  part of our heart.